Classics, almost by definition, are works that are considered to be of high quality, are influential on later works, and are widely known. However, one will often find that only scholars and enthusiasts have first-hand knowledge of the material in question, and that the masses know it either only by title or by homages, parodies, direct references and allusions found in more populist works. Essentially, various bits and pieces of high culture are most widely known through their use in pop culture (which also puts them on track to become standard snippets). Ill-informed people might even think these bits and pieces are original to the popular work, And That's Terrible (nine times out of ten).

Compare/Contrast Pop-Culture Isolation (in which the reference is well-known in one or a few major areas, but virtually unknown elsewhere).

Examples:

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Advertising

Several slogans from old radio commercials live on as catch phrases in Looney Tunes cartoons, while virtually nobody remembers their actual origins. Examples are: "Turn off that light!" (referring to air raid warden during World War II), "Was this trip really necessary?" (referring to a slogan used to encourage people not to take unnecessary trips to free up gas and rubber for the war egffort and to free up space on trains to ferry troops to their duty locations.), "B.OOOOOOO!" (referencing a Lifebuoy soap commercial against body odor) and "Aha! Something new has been added!" and "So round, so firm, so fully-packed. So free and easy on the draw" (referencing Lucky Strike cigarettes).

Anime and Manga

Fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion can generally sing along with "Fly Me to the Moon" without knowing the original artist, or even one of the dozens of famous American artists who covered it in the four decades before NGE came out.

"Kashikoma!" is a Japanese word that means "I understand!" or "Capisce!" However, most people today associate the phrase with PriPara, due to said word being Laala Manaka's catchphrase.

Every anime indulge-r knows of Dragon Ball ...only whenever someone hears the name Son Gokuu, very few people are going to ever going to think about the original Monkey King from Journey to the West over the iconic Saiyan protagonist, since Son Gokuu is the Japanese rendering of the Chinese name Sun Wukong. This expands to many other works that involve the usage of Wukong's name in that form of Japanese rendering (also ranging to Japanese dubs of any original Journey to the West-based media), which only shows how a majority of people are rarely associated with the original works and/or drama adaptations. It's to the point that in a nutshell, where people don't realize that Dragon Ball's version of Wukong/Gokuu was based off another prior monkey character with the same exact name (孫悟空).

Dragon Ball itself gets this from Americans and other English speakers thanks to the divide between the original and American takes, such that it's much easier to find someone to laugh about the Over 9,000 meme than it is to discuss the Wuxia elements in the franchise. This is due to the separation of Dragon Ball Z from the earlier parts of the story, and further thanks to the various dubs and script changes in Funimation's version of the insatiably popular Z. Untilrecently, the Japanese and American versions of the show were very different, with mixedresults. A common derisive stereotype among fans of the Japanese original is that dub fans only know and love the early Cut-and-Paste Translation of the franchise, when in reality DBZ received an uncut dub down the line that proved to be more popular, and most modern English-language Dragon Ball material is fully uncensored and far more faithful to the Japanese original.

There's a little obscure 1998 anime called Nazca that's far, far more well known as "That anime from the Malcolm in the Middle opening."

Subverted in that some of Tenniel's Punch cartoons — most notably perhaps "Dropping the Pilot", his reaction to the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck as German chancellor — are still very familiar from being reprinted in historical textbooks and referenced by more modern cartoonists. It's just that most people don't realize they were drawn by the same artist as Lewis Carroll's books...

Thanks to many biopics about Leonardo da Vinci painter Andrea Mantegna is nowadays better known as Da Vinci's mentor than for his own work.

To many art fans Jean-Paul Marat is remembered more for Jacques-Louis David's striking painting than the actual historical character. The work has in fact done a lot to transform a very radical politician into an innocent victim.

Comedy

A Night at the Opera has ruined Il Trovatore for many people. Just try to hear the Anvil Chorus without thinking of Chico and Harpo after you've seen it...

The song called "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" created by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin is better remembered as the music for the Looney Tunes theme song, Daffy Duck sings a more complete version of the song with different lyrics in "Daffy and Egghead".

To people who grew up in The New Millenium, the song "Funiculi, Funicula" is better known as the tune to the VeggieTales song "Larry's High Silk Hat".

Japanese children will know the song as "The Ogre's Pants", which is a folk song that is sung to the same tune. The song is well-known in Japan for being the favorite song of Baikinman and Dokin-chan from Anpanman.

Some people who have sent e-cards or have given certain American Greetings cards will associate "The Barber of Seville" with The Birthday Sock.

A lot of comic book characters are much better known world wide from full length cartoon or movie adaptations than they from their original source material. In fact: this is literally the case with everyone of them: either in Europe (The Smurfs, Astérix, Tintin), the US (every superhero character) or Japan (lots of manga comics are much better known as anime cartoons).

Tintin: If people outside China and Japan have heard about the Japanese-Chinese war of the 1930s it will be mostly through the album The Blue Lotus, where it is a large part of the plot.

Suske en Wiske's frequent time travels have taught many children in the Benelux of countless historical characters and time periods.

Nowadays more people will think of Barabas as the professor in Suske en Wiske, rather than the Biblical character.

There is a Suske en Wiske story called De Texasrakkers ("The Texas Scoundrels"), which was originally a shout-out to the popular 1950s TV western series The Texas Rangers, but this show is nowadays completely forgotten. In fact: mention The Texas Rangers today in Flanders or the Netherlands and everybody assumes you mean De Texasrakkers.

Nero readers will recognize several Belgian and international politicians between 1947 and 2002 from their cameo appearances in the series.

In Flanders more people will think of Nero as the titular character of this comic strip than the Roman Emperor Nero.

De Kiekeboes: When hearing the word Constantinopel many young readers will rather think of Kiekeboe's son than the former name of Istanbul.

Lucky Luke features cameo appearances of several Wild West icons, which are only familiar to people outside Europe because of said cameos.

Donald Duck (& Co.), and The Disneyverse in general, are simply filled with retold classics, movie and music references and the like, providing lots of kids their first contact with Greek myths, Shakespeare's plays, classical history, etc.

Many fairy tales and literary classics are nowadays much better known in animated adaptations by Walt Disney than the original tales. Expect many people to be surprised that certain characters and scenes are not in the original tales or that the stories in general have far Darker and Edgier content. It has gotten to the point that many assume that all these Disney adaptations are in fact fairy tales, while many, like Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp, for instance, are not.

The Three Little Pigs cemented the idea in many people's mind that "The Three Little Pigs" are all individual characters and that none of them get eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. In the original story they have no individual personalities and the first two are eaten by the wolf. Many people will also automatically start singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" whenever the story is mentioned.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Since this film came out many adaptations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs have turned the dwarfs into individual characters and have the prince kiss Snow White back to life. In the original fairy tale the dwarfs were not individualized and Snow White was saved when the prince accidentally dropped the coffin, causing the apple she ate to fall out of her throat. Another change in story is that the Evil Stepmother actually attempted to poison Snow White three times, with her third attempt being the poisoned apple.

Pinocchio made the role of Jiminy Cricket as Pinocchio's conscience much more central to the story. In the original novel Jiminy is only a minor character, who gets squashed accidentally by Pinocchio even before he leaves the house. The majority of the book didn't even make the film.

Bambi: Thanks to this film many people refer to a baby deer as a "Bambi". The original story is also far more adult.

Cinderella: Quite faithful to the story, except for the singing birds and mice and the horrible ending in which the evil stepsisters cut off parts of their feet just to fit into the slipper and later when they appear at the wedding where their eyes are picked out by birds.

Justified in this case, since Disney credited Charles Perrault as the original author, rather than The Brothers Grimm. In Perrault's version, the stepsisters are not punished. Instead, they beg Cinderella for forgiveness, and not only does she forgive them, but she also arranges for them to be married into nobility. Apparently this ending was too happy, even for Disney, so in the movie, the stepsisters have to settle for not being mutilated.

There's a straight-to-video short sequel in which Cinderella does help one stepsister find a husband (but not nobility).

Sleeping Beauty: Many people expect the Prince fighting a dragon at the end, which is a scene added by the Disney version, not present in the original.

The Jungle Book: The general public instantly thinks of this movie whenever The Jungle Book is brought up in conversation. Never mind the fact that this film has barely anything to do with the original story, except for the fact that Mowgli is indeed raised by wolves and that the characters' names are the same. For instance, Rudyard Kipling's novel Baloo is a serious character and Kaa is a friend of Mowgli.

Robin Hood: Many children's impression of Robin Hood is shaped by this movie, especially the expectation that there is an archery contest halfway the story, which doesn't happen in the original tale.

The Little Mermaid: The original fairy tale has a far darker ending, in which the mermaid doesn't get her voice back and becomes sea foam.

Aladdin: In the original Arabian Nights the story takes place in China and the amount of wishes isn't restricted to just three.

Hercules: Many children nowadays have a completely wrong impression of the story and Greek Mythology in general thanks to this tale. Not only has the Disney adaptation more in common with Superman and Rocky: we never even see Hercules perform any of his actual 12 tasks, except for fighting off the Hydra. To top it all off many people assume Hades is a villain, while in the original Greek Mythology he is not regarded as such.

There's likely not a soul on Earth who doesn't associate "L'apprenti sorcier" by Paul Dukas with Mickey Mouse.

Or take "Dance of the Hours" from Ponchielli's ballet La Gioconda. When you hear it, you'll either think of the dancing hippos from Fantasia, or you'll start singing, "Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh, here I am at Camp Granada..." (Allan Sherman's well-known funny song). Or both.

Dumbo: Dumbo's name is a pun on the 19th century circus elephant Jumbo, something that not many people nowadays remember now.

Aladdin: Probably not many children nowadays will be aware that when the Genie encourages Aladdin while barking and waving his fist he briefly transforms into TV presenter Arsenio Hall. Outside of the USA virtually nobody.

The Lion King: Younger people have the wrong impression that the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" originated from this movie. Nope: It is almost half a century older!

When Moana came out, eagle-eyed viewers liked to point out the "easter egg" in Lilo & Stitch where David Kawena (the boyfriend of Lilo Pelekai's older sister Nani) is seen wearing Maui's fish hook as a necklace. The internet was quick to point out that this was the equivalent of thinking that every character that wear a cross or crucifix in movies is in reference for The Last Temptation of Christ, never mind the fact that Lilo & Stitch predates Moana by fourteen years.

Surprisingly averted with the usage of "We Go Together" from Grease in The Secret Life of Pets, with most fans of the film (most of whom are children) claiming they knew what the song being played was as soon as it begun in the scene. It helps that Grease is one of the most popular choices for school musicals, that many of the parents of said children grew up watching the 1978 film adaptation of the musical, and that Secret Life of Pets happened to premiere a few months after FOX televised a successful live production of Grease.

This happened with the classic songs featured in Trolls thanks to its monster popularity. On Google, the Trolls versions of the songs have more results than the original versions.

Films — Live-Action

The Chest Burster scene from Alien and the power loader scene from Aliens are two of the most widely referenced and parodied moments in modern film. Even if you haven't seen the movies, you know those scenes, or at the very least the line:

The 1925 Russian film Bronenosets Potyomkin, usually called Battleship Potemkin in English-language sources, is generally considered hugely influential on later cinema. There is a particular scene set on some stairs leading down to the harbour in Odessa which has been imitated several times, including in The Untouchables and one of the Naked Gun films. It is reasonable to assume that, in modern times at least, more people who are not cineasts will have seen these homages/parodies than have seen the original film.

Battleship Potemkin is parodied with the title Battleship Kotemkin in the 1976 italian comedy movie Il Secondo Tragico Fantozzi (second of a long series based on a few corporate satire / dark humor books with protagonist accountant Ugo Fantozzi) and it's portrayed as overly long and overly boring artsy film. In this chapter of the Fantozzi series, one of the new executives of the company that employs Fantozzi is a fanatic cineast who forces everyone in his department to attend film screening and dicussions after work hours. When he sets up one of those screening the same night of the final European Cup football match, Fantozzi opens the debate after the screening with the iconic line "Battleship Kotemkin is crazy bulls**t!" and everyone revolts. Hilarity ensues and the exec is forced to screen loads of terrible b-movies as punishment. To this day most Italians think that Battleship Potemkin is a movie that lasts several hours, it's hard to understand and generally liked only by snobs.

In the version shown in this troper's country, Fantozzi and the other "revolutionaries" eventually burn the copy of the film Battleship Kotemkin (however, the name was misspronounced differently in the dub as 'Potyomkin') and are then sentenced by the court to re-enact the Odessa stairs sequence on a weekly basis, the exec ('dottore') posing as the director and Fantozzi literally appearing as the baby in the pram.

By now, a notable percentage of the people who reference Citizen Kane as a cinema classic and could recognize the opening scene from any one second of footage have actually never seen the film and wouldn't be able to identify any other line, shot or sequence from the whole movie (okay, maybe one).

Similarly, Orson Welles has reached more Internet notoriety through out-takes of his 1970s TV commercials where he is audibly drunk and complaining about the bad lines he has to recite. His voice too will probably have many fans of Pinky and the Brain think of The Brain, which was a direct vocal parody of Welles' voice.

People these days seem to think that "Klaatu Barada Nikto" is that funny nonsense line from Sam Raimi's horror comedy Army of Darkness (1992) (aka The Evil Dead 3) or the names of three 1983 Star Wars toys. Actually, the phrase comes from the black-and white sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), where the sentence is used to stop Gort, the powerful invincible robot of the alien Klaatu, from destroying the Earth as punishment for the humans killing his peaceful master.

As famous as the 1932 classic Freaks is, many more people are familiar with the parodies and allusions to its "One of us! One of us!" scene out of context. What's more, in these parodies, the phrase often comes off as threatening, the direct opposite of how it's played in the film (although the recipient sees it as such). Parodists also don't seem to remember the "Gooble-gobble" part most of the time, although that's arguably for the best.

Due to his habit of pastiching rather obscure movies, Quentin Tarantino is perhaps responsible for more Popcultural Osmosis than any other mainstream filmmaker.

When people hear Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Steet" nowadays they will probably associate it quicker with the opening scene of Jackie Brown rather than the movie Womack originally wrote it for: Across 110th Street (1972).

The yellow track-suit Uma Thurman wears in Kill Bill during the climatic fight scene against O-Ren Ishii will probably remind more people of this film than the movie this costume originally homaged: Game of Death (people tend to associate it more with star Bruce Lee than the film itself). Similarly the song "Flower of Carnage" was originally used in Lady Snowblood and the character Gogo Yubari (played by the same actress in the same outfit) are a direct reference to Battle Royale.

The opening of Django Unchained may lead many people into thinking it was written for this movie, while in reality it is the opening theme of Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti western classic Django.

Not too many people know that "pulp fiction" is a term that has been in use long before Tarantino's film. It referred to the hard-boiled crime fiction (i.e. Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade) that appeared in magazines made from wood-pulp paper throughout the early 20th century.

Edward G. Robinson's distinct facial features and speech mannerisms have been used for every stereotypical mob boss in animated cartoons, including Rocky and Mugsy in Looney Tunes and the Mob boss of the Ant Hill Gang in Wacky Races.

The archetypical monocle-wearing German military officer is always a caricature of Erich von Stroheim's stock roles.

Any imitation of Count Dracula (and often of vampires in general) nowadays is a reference to Bela Lugosi's portrayal of him in the 1931 classic Dracula. Down to his Hungarian accent. Similarly any pop culture appearance of Frankenstein's Monster will be modelled after Boris Karloff's make-up.

The voice of puppet character Mortimer Snerd by Edgar Bergen likewise also inspired the dimwitted voice of many cartoon characters.

The line "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples" is heard in a lot of animated cartoons, but actually came from film comedian Lew Lehr's catch phrase.

When characters in old Looney Tunes or MGM cartoons use the term "Come with me to ze casbah" they are actually referencing the 1937 film Algiers, where Charles Boyer's "Pépé Le Moko" used this line. Note that people will probably not realize this, even if they HAVE seen this movie, because it was only used in the trailer.

"Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" Despite being quoted (albeit, incorrectly) and parodied in pop culture for decades, most people have no idea this line is a reference to the Humphrey Bogart film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, often attributing its origins to Blazing Saddles instead. However, without the understanding that the line in the latter film is intended to be a parody of the former, the joke itself does not make sense. (The actual, original quote from the film goes, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!")

There probably aren't that many people who, thanks to Fantasia, wouldn't think of dinosaurs when listening to ''The Rite of Spring".

That melody that everybody associates with clown cars and elephants? The one that goes doot-doot-doodle-doo-dah-doot-doot-doo-dah? Enter the Gladiators by Julius Fucik.

Hypothetical Roman announcer at the Coliseum: And now, in this corner, Brutus the Destroyer! (calliope music)

Any time-lapse footage of city life is likely to be a reference to Koyaanisqatsi, either directly or indirectly.

You know how the canonical sound of lasers firing is a sort of "pew pew pew" effect? You can thank Ben Burtt, the audio designer for Star Wars, for that. The original sound effect was created by holding a microphone up to a taut wire while hitting the other end.

Groundhog Day: Many viewers probably assume the film makers thought up the annual event where a groundhog sticking his head up from the ground is celebrated by local people. It is, in fact, a very real tradition. Today, however, the term "Groundhog Day" has become a concept that describes a feeling of having to relive the same day over and over again.

The exclamation "D'oh!" is nowadays more closely associated with Homer Simpson's catch phrase in The Simpsons than Laurel and Hardy actor James Finlayson, from whom it originated.

The theme music of Cape Fear (1962) will be recognized by most Simpsons fans as the leitmotif of Sideshow Bob.

Nowadays, people are likely to associate Paint Your Wagon with the Simpsons episode "All Singing, All Dancing" and would probably be amazed that this 1969 film starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin actually exists. In reality, though, the plot is more than just characters singing and dancing about painting a wagon.

Opening scrolls at the start of a film are now attributed to Star Wars, but they actually originated in the 1930s film serials Flash Gordon.

The Maurice Chevalier Accent is nowadays used for every French character in English-language comedy. Most people are completely unaware it all originated with Maurice Chevalier's popularity in 1930s Hollywood movies. Chevalier's thick accent made him the stock Frenchman from which all other Frenchman in comedy and animation are now derived.

Thanks to The Shining the line "Hééééééére's Johnny!" has become the thing you shout when you cut your way through a door with an axe and stick your menacing face through the hole. That this line was Ed McMahon's way of introducing Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show is only remembered by older American TV watchers.

Peter Lorre's voice is recognizable, even to those who have never seen any of his movies. This is due (aside from his unique appearance) to his caricature being used in a number of Looney Tunes shorts.

The infamous "YOU ARE TEARING ME APART, LISA!" line from The Room was actually done as an homage to Rebel Without a Cause. Most people don't know this, and think that it originated in The Room. Additionally, the comments sections of most YouTube uploads of the Rebel Without A Cause scene are flooded with references to The Room.

Monty Python's Flying Circus has a sketch where a film crew is making a movie called Scott Of The Antarctic, about the failed expedition of polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Most viewers nowadays would be amazed that there actually is a movie with that title. "Scott Of The Antarctic" (1947), which is a faithful adaptation of the actual real life tragedy, but mostly forgotten nowadays.

The word avatar has become more well known among the general public thanks to Avatar, but most people will rather think of blue aliens (or Airbenders) than what the concept actually means.

Many porn actors like Ron Jeremy, John Holmes, Traci Lords, Linda Lovelace, La Cicciolina, Lolo Ferrari,... are better known as punch lines in film and TV comedies, stand-up monologues and/or comedic blogs than the amount of people who actually saw one of their movies. Some of them have even moved beyond the porn, consider it an Old Shame, and get tired of people bringing it up as if they're still involved with that scene.

The Jazz Singer is famous for being the first succesful sound film and a milestone in cinematic history. Ask any cinephile what they know about the movie and they'll tell you it stars Al Jolson singing in Blackface. Apart from that most people, even movie fans have never seen this picture in its entirety and it's not difficult to see why. Apart from the novelty of being the first sound picture it's hardly a cinematic masterpiece and very dated. Jolson himself, by the way, was once one of the biggest singers in the world, but today he is only remembered for appearing in this movie.

Behind Shakespeare and the Bible, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is probably the biggest sufferer of this trope. The novel draws heavily on contemporary Gothic horror, feminist theories, and Paradise Lost. And yet when most people think of Frankenstein...

Frankenstein's monster's skin color is referred to as yellow (jaundiced) in the novel.

Much like Dracula, a lot of this is down to the movie being based on the play. Despite being almost forgotten now, the 1823 play (which changed the monster into a mindless beast and removed all of the Nature vs. Nurture ambiguity in favor of it being an Abomination Against God) was the best-known version of the story for a century.

The extent to which Moby-Dick is well-understood is emphasized in Star Trek: First Contact when Lily Sloan, despite knowing the basic plot of the book, is stymied when Captain Picard (mis)quotes a central line from the text.

Problem Sleuth and Homestuck both feature monsters that clearly resemble Lovecraft's elder gods. The author, Andrew Hussie, has outright stated that he's never read a word of Lovecraft, and based his monsters entirely on secondhand references to the Cthulhu mythos.

You've probably encountered the tropes the Horatio Hornblower series popularized long before you ever heard of the series itself.

And that obscure little work of fiction got a Shout-Out in the episode "Smile Time" of Angel, with a purple stuffed thing that communicates via a horn on its face named Ratio. It's likely you didn't get the joke.

And the only reason a lot of people have even heard of Horatio Hornblower in the first place is that Gene Roddenberry repeatedly referenced the books when explaining Star Trek and Captain Kirk in books and articles about the show.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls." You've heard that pithy phrase, usually said when someone else is in trouble, but who said it? How about "No man is an island" ? Well, they both came from the same paragraph of the the same essay, but missing the context.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

—Excerpted from Meditation XVII by John Donne (1623 - he was contemplating his own death at the time)

Casabianca: "The boy stood on the burning deck/Whence all but he had fled..."

This reference has become somewhat coloured by various transformations into a dirty schoolyard-esque song, such as those known by Nanny Ogg in the Discworld novels. All that need be known (and is indeed given) is that the opening lines are 'The boy stood on the burning deck/His name was Henry Rollocks' and that it starts out 'harmless enough'.

Most of Lewis Carroll's songs and rhymes in the Alice in Wonderland books were parodies of once-common Victorian standards which, with the exception of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and the possible exception of "The Spider and the Fly", are considered obscure trivia by most modern readers.

Most people know the phrase "water water everywhere but not a drop to drink", but hardly anybody knows that it came from Samuel Coleridge's Rime Of The Ancient Mariner or that the original wording was "nor any drop to drink".

Used for a joke in the Confederation of Valor series. The Taykan species are Space Elves. Thanks to popcultural osmosis from humans, they're well aware of their physical similarity to classical elves and apparently find the comparison amusing: Torin Kerr once met a di'Taykan named Celeborn.

Of Mice and Men is clearly about a big guy named Lenny and a little guy named George, and absolutely nothing else, if all the references to those characters in various sources is any indication.

The Satanic Verses: Most people know more about the blasphemy controversy around this novel than that they've actually read it. Including many Muslim fundamentalists who want Salman Rushdie dead.

"Into each life some rain must fall" is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Rainy Day".

Northanger Abbey features several references to real Gothic romance novels that were popular at the time but have all been forgotten, leading many modern readers to assume Jane Austen was making them up.

The show has also made certain historical and cultural characters more notable among geeks who watch the show, but mostly as part of a surreal sketch that has little to do with whom they actually were.

Alan Whicker is nowadays better known from the Python sketch "Whicker's World" than as an actual TV presenter who had a travel show under that very name.

To a lot of people Monty Python "is that guy who made that funny Holy Grail film". That Python is not an actual person, but the collective pseudonym of a team; or; that they also made other films AND originated from a long running TV series is far less known among the general public. Many of Monty Python's most popular sketches are also far better known outside the context of the original series and often show up in heavily edited form on compilations. As a result even scenes from films and TV series that only feature two or three of the Python actors have been branded as Python films, despite not having anything to do with them.

Angelo Bronzino's painting "Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time" is fairy obscure nowadays, even in art circles, but one specific detail on the painting may ring a bell to Python fans. Cupid's foot has been used in the intro of every episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and is now their official logo.

Mention the Spanish Inquisition today and some people might start laughing instantly because it reminds them of the Python sketch of the same name. People outside the English-speaking world may also be unaware that the phrase "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition" is an actual idiom, expressing someone's irritation over being asked too many questions.

How many people nowadays are aware that the "Dennis Moore" song is a literal parody of the theme song of the 1950s TV series "The Adventure of Robin Hood"? Both melody and lyrics are very similar ("Robin Hood, Robin Hood / Riding through the glen/ Robin Hood, Robin Hood/ With his band of men").

Iron Chef fans may not realize the original theme music, and indeed much of the incidental music, was from the movie soundtrack for Back Draft.

Pop culture even has a habit of obscuring itself. Adam Savage of MythBusters is frequently credited for the quote, "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" Actually, the line originated from the 1985 So Bad, It's Good film The Dungeonmaster (Ragewar outside of the US).

Most people not familiar with Power Rangers will simply refer to characters as "The Red Ranger" and "The Pink Ranger" etc. What they don't realize is that, as of February 2015, there have been no less than 27 different Red Rangers, with many more off-screen, and a few more debatable ones.

Similar to Power Rangers is the Ultra Series. Many people unfamiliar with the series assume Ultraman to be a single long-running series and will refer to all Ultras as "Ultraman" under the assumption that they are simply different designs for a single character. In reality, Ultraman only ran for 39 episodes from 1966-1967, and the other Ultras are different individuals who star in their own completely separate but related shows, with the first Ultra being just called "Ultraman"note Although in some like Ultraman Nexus, Ultraman The Ultimate Hero, and Ultraman Towards The Future, the heroes are only ever identified as "Ultraman" in-universe, rather than the respective Ultraman Nexus, Ultraman Powered, and Ultraman Great, as the series were intended to be remakes.

The Twilight Zone is better known through parodies these days to the point where many people know the endings to famous episodes without ever having seen them. Outside the USA people know it most from being spoofed in The Simpsons.

The name Heisenberg is today much more associated with Walter White than with German physicist Werner Heisenberg.

Mention the name Big Brother today and most people will think you're referring to the reality show Big Brother rather than a central character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This is actually rather sad seeing that the novel warns against a society where government surveillance on people is total, while this TV show exploited this concept.

When people see a collie nowadays many will refer to it as a "Lassie".

Samson En Gert: In Belgium and the Netherlands most people will not think of the biblical character when hearing the name "Samson", but of a talking bobtail dog.

FC De Kampioenen: Carmen's dog Nero was originally named after the Belgian comic strip character Nero. Since 2002 the comic strip has been terminated and the albums are no longer available in regular stores, making the original reference more obscure. Most younger people will probably assume it's a reference to the Roman emperor Nero.

Spitting Image: This show featuring puppet versions of famous celebrities has also caused some Memetic Mutation. Today many people in the UK remember Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher more as in their grotesque villainous puppet versions than as Real Life people. A good example is Thatcher beating up members of her cabinet in many sketches, which a lot of people almost assume she did.

The Noddy Shop: People who grew up with this show are more familiar with Johnny Crawfish than the comedian he was based off, Johnny Carson. One of his songs, "Tooth Fairy", also falls under this trope, being a spoof of "Beauty School Dropout" from Grease.

If you've ever heard someone use the phrase "ready to rock and roll", they're more likely to have heard the phrase from a song in the episode "The Trouble With Truman" than the Elvis song of the same name, either because their kids watched the show or they themselves watched it when the show was popular.

Some fans of The Nanny often believe that the character of Lamb Chop was specifically made for one episode of the show when she actually was a real character who dates back to the 1950's and was popular at the time the series aired due to the character having her own show back then.

Stranger Things and its many references to Dungeons & Dragons. Let's be honest. Does the average viewer of the show know who Demorgorgon is or what mind flayers are? Chances are they know those things better as inhabitants of the Upside-Down than as classic staples of the D&D Monster Manual.

Music

Start your search here. Continue here. And see what you really associate those snippets with.

Or the song that Peter Lorre whistles when he goes hunting little kids in M.

Worse yet, one dance remix of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" has been miscredited on file-sharing services as a remix of the Inspector Gadget theme, despite there being only a very vague similarity between the two songs.

Similarly, the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is better known to many 8-bit-era gamers as "the title music to Jet Set Willy".

Play the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" to anyone in the world, except Russians, and they are almost certain to identify it as video game music. Specifically, the Tetris theme.

The song "Anything Goes":

It's does not come from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It's an authentic show tune of the period, from a Cole Porter musical of the same name, and, by the way, normally sung in English.

The BBC's use of Booker T. & The MGs', "Soul Limbo". Also known as the Cricket music.

Fleetwood Mac's outro to "The Chain", otherwise known as the Formula One Racing music.

Singin' in the Rain did this to most of the songs in the movie, most notably the title tune which was a standard song to be sung by aspiring actors in film in the '20s, '30s and '40s.

Kesha's "Take it Off" is a pop version of "The Streets of Cairo" (usually associated with snake-charming in pop-culture).

Know what the song "Spybreak!" sounds like? What if I told you it's the song that plays during the lobby shootout scene in The Matrix? If you already did, did you even know who the Propellerheads were before you did the research? The movie came out two years after the song.

The song "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen has been greatly popularized through its use in other shows:

Oddly enough, averted in the case of Full Metal Jacket. Despite it being one of the most famous war movies of all time and made by a household name director, very few people associate "Surfin' Bird" with it — or at least, the association got transferred over to Family Guy. In fact, given the plentiful references to the film throughout Family Guy, it's more than likely where Seth McFarlane and co. know of "Surfin' Bird" from.

That small peak in 2004 coincides with the release of Battlefield Vietnam, which for a fair few gamers might be the thing they associate with the song.

Similar to the "Pistons Intro Song" above, The Alan Parsons Project's instrumental tune "Sirius" (aka the song right before "Eye in the Sky") is far more familiar as the intro song for the Chicago Bulls during the Jordan era.

Utter the line "Right here, right now", and nearly anyone with associate it with Fat Boy Slim's song of that name, not the movie (Strange Days) it's sampled from.

Many Americans are undoubtedly familiar with "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here." Considerably fewer might be aware of the fact that the tune is from a Pirates of Penzance ditty called "Come, Friends Who Plow the Sea."

The "Polovetsian Dances" from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor tend to be more commonly associated with Kismet and a certain Pine-Sol commercial these days.

The nursery tune "Pop! Goes The Weasel" was originally a piece of dance music that was popular in London dance-halls and American stage acts in the 1850s, and as a playground singing-game for kids dancing in circles. Nowadays, it's irrevocably associated with Jack-in-the-Boxes, to the point where such a toy playing any other tune feels like a Subverted Trope.

"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" has become such a popular standard that some first time viewers of Monty Python's Life of Brian will laugh when the characters sing this song, because they assume the Pythons are simply covering a well known song. In reality it was completely written by Python member Eric Idle.

The album cover of Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins has become infamous thanks to the image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono posing in the nude. It is also frequently shown in documentaries about Lennon, Yoko Ono and The Beatles, pops up in lists of controversial album covers and has been spoofed and parodied countless times. But the younger generations who may recognize the image may not even be aware it's not just a photograph, but an actual album. Needless to say that even those who know this have hardly ever listened to it, left alone more than once.

Possibly the only thing many people know about "He's So Fine" — the only thing a not insignificant number of people know about The Chiffons period, if they even remember the name of the band — is that a judge ruled George Harrison inadvertently plagiarized it when he wrote "My Sweet Lord." (If "My Sweet Lord" doesn't ring a bell, it's Greg's grace from Meet the Parents)

Jazz musician Mongo Santamaria is perhaps best known today as the punchline of a throwaway joke involving the character Mongo in Blazing Saddles.

Julius Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators" has been used by so many circuses that most listeners have trouble imagining it in its original context of an Ancient Roman arena and will more likely imagine clowns popping up.

The Beatles: They were named after a throwaway line in the film The Wild One, where someone refers to a motor gang named "The Beetles". Nobody, even those who saw that movie, will associate the band with that gang nowadays. In fact, if you say the word "beetle" in a non-English speaking country nobody will think of insects but will immediately assume you're referring to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

The name "Franz Ferdinand" may remind people more of the band Franz Ferdinand rather than the Austrian arch duke Franz Ferdinand who inspired his name.

Jethro Tull brings up more associations with 1970s Progressive Rock than the 17th century British agriculturist after whom they were named.

Metal fans will probably associate Ed Gein more with the band than the serial killer.

Fall Out Boy is more remembered as a pop rock band than the sidekick of Radioactive Man from The Simpsons, which was the source for their name.

Molly Hatchet may remind more people of a Southern Rock band than then notiorious prostitute who murdered her clients.

Nobody knows US gym teacher Leonard Skinner. But you've probably heard of the band who took their name from him: Lynyrd Skynyrd, as a Take That! for sending them to the principal's office in high school for having "too long hair".

Any fan of avant-garde synthesizer pop will have heard of Art Of Noise. But how many are aware their band name is a nod to Luigi Russolo's manifesto "Art of Noises"?

Belgian indie rock band Creature With The Atom Brain has quite some fans, most of them unaware that the band was named after a song by Roky Erickson who, in his turn, was inspired by a 1955 B-movie called Creature With The Atom Brain.

In Belgium the band Nacht und Nebel will remind people of the band who scored a hit with the song "Beats of Love" in 1984. Not many are aware they were named after a Nazi order, "Nacht und Nebel", which made the secret arrest of political opponents possible.

Similar to Nacht und Nebel, Joy Division took its name from the prostitution wing in Nazi concentration camps, while New Order were named after a political proposal by Hitler, but not many people nowadays will immediately make the link

A joke current in the 1930's illustrates how much Older Than They Think this trope is: It defined a "highbrow" as "Someone who can hear the William Tell Overture by Rossini and not think of The Lone Ranger."

Myths and Religon

The Bible is the grand-daddy of this trope, with sayings like "there's nothing new under the sun" and references to Pillars of Salt and the like existing in almost every medium, though very few people have actually read the Book in question (people who go to Church will have heard excerpts). Saying religious things in Jacobean English, with lots of "thees" and "thous," comes from the King James Bible.

Happens to Norse Mythology. No, Loki is not Thor's brother nor is he the ultimate evil (his wickedness depends on where and by whom the myth was recorded) nor is he Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Loki is not a "god of fire"; this is a confusion with Logi, a giant who is fire personified (and whose name means 'fire'). Thor is also not stated to be blond; the closest thing to any sort of indicator of appearance is the kenning (nickname) "Red-Thor" which supposedly points to Thor being a ginger.

Many gods from Greek Mythology are far more famous under their Roman names today. It gets to the point that even in stories specifically set in Ancient Greece the characters will still be addressed under their Roman names, because people are more likely to recognize characters like Heracles, Eros and Poseidon, for instance, as Hercules, Cupid and Neptune.

Similarly hearing the names Mars, Jupiter, Mercurius, Saturn, Pluto, Uranus and Venus will make people wonder whether you are referring to the planets in our solar system.

The name Pluto may have people think you're referring to Mickey Mouse 's dog.

Hearing the names of the planets can also lead people to think that you're talking about the Sailor Senshi.

Ajax, the Trojan hero, will bring up associations with a Dutch association football club and/or a cleaning product.

Likewise, Nike, the goddess of victory, will bring up associations with a brand of sneakers.

When seeing a statue of Pan today many Western people may mistake it for depicting Satan. This is because the depiction of Satan as a goat-like creature was actually derived from it.

Use the word "atlas" and people will think you are talking about a geography book with maps, rather than the Greek half-god who carried the sky — and various works of art have many mistakenly believing that Atlas carried the world (which is, granted, easier to portray in a statue).

Santa Claus is celebrated across the entire world, but few people are aware that the character is mostly a composite of other holiday characters, such as Sinterklaas and Father Christmas. And even those characters were derived from Norse mythological god Odin, who travelled the sky on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir (a name many may know only from the character in Girl Genius).

Print Media

Charlie Hebdo was already half a century old and mostly known in France and/or to readers of adult comics. It's only in January 2015 when they suddenly became notorious world wide. Unfortunately it had more to do with the deadly terrorist attacks on the head quarters of the magazine, which resulted in several deaths. As a result, Charlie Hebdo bring up more associations with Muslim terrorism, religious fanaticism and the right for freedom of speech than the actual ideology and content of the magazine. Most people have never read an issue and have only a vague notion what this magazine is about.

The tropes of Hulk Hogan are familiar to millions (perhaps even billions!) of people who have never watched a single wrestling match - particularly Hogan's ultra-macho manner of speaking and shirt-ripping.

"Gold Dust" was a soap powder back in the 1930s. Now he's a glamrock-like Superstar who falls down and slaps people, and also has a penchant for inhaling melodramatically. Which is ironic, because Goldust was indeed named after the soap powder (albeit indirectly).

Radio

An example so classic, jokes about it pre-date the concept of this trope: a wit from the 1960s noted this definition of a "longhair" (a person of culture): "he can hear the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger." The piece of music referred to is from the Rossini Opera William Tell. The dramatic fanfare and thundering string section from the overture was used as the theme music for The Lone Ranger radio drama and then in movies and on television.

On the subject of the Lone Ranger and William Tell, this commercial, which references not only The Lone Ranger but another TV ad of the day for Lark Cigarettes.

To those who were too young for The Lone Ranger but old enough to watch a certain incarnation of The Tex Avery Show, and are sadly unfamiliar with the origin of the piece, the tune could bring to mind a montage of zany animation.

"The Shadow knows". Yeah, great, what does that mean, exactly? The full line goes "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!". The Shadow is a psychic and fights crime by implanting the suggestion in a person's head that he's invisible, so he can eavesdrop a lot.

Many US radio shows from the 1930s and 1940s have catch phrases that are nowadays more closely associated with the cartoons of Looney Tunes and Tex Avery. Examples are:

"It's a possibility!" and "Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I hope", which originated from Al Pearce's radio comedy shows.

"Don't you believe it!" was a reference to a 1947 radio show of the same name in which popular urban legends were debunked. Tom saying this in Tom and Jerry has confused quite some viewers in the decades beyond.

"I dood it!", "He don't know me very well, do he?" and "You bwoke my widdle arm!" s were lifted from the radio character Junior, aka "Mean Widdle Kid", played by Red Skelton.

The line "Henry! Hééééééén-RY!" and the answer "Coming, mother!" referenced The Aldrich Family.

"I have a problem, Mr. Anthony!" was lifted from John J. Anthony's daily radio advice program "The Goodwill Hour".

The speech..."I say", the speech mannerisms of Senator Claghorn on the radio show "The Fred Allen Show" live on today as the voice of Looney Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn..."'Leghorn', that is".

Theater

Various bits from the works of William Shakespeare have been quoted, parodied, imitated and plagiarized too many times to count. Particularly notable are cases in which Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy is confused with the "Alas, poor Yorick" one, leading to an actor reciting the former while holding the prop skull that belongs in the latter. There's a fair amount of Beam Me Up, Scotty! at work, too: "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him" often has a "well" added to the end in pop culture.

Orsino's opening line of "If music be the food of love, play on," from Twelfth Night is often assumed to be quite romantic and/or demonstrative of a love of art. Very few include the rest of the quote: "Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,/The appetite may sicken, and so die."

A particularly egregious example is the way in which Juliet's speech "Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" usually has a spurious comma added after the "thou", completely changing the meaning. "Wherefore" actually stands in the same relationship to "therefore" as "where" does to "there"; it doesn't mean "where", it means "why". Juliet is not wondering where Romeo is as commonly supposed, but is speaking to him and asking the reason for his name. (Sounds weird the first time you hear it, but it becomes clear what she means: "Why did the man I fell in love with have to be Romeo Montague, probably my father's last choice on earth of son-in-law?")

Also, the name of the play being used to mean an ideal romance other than the ludicrously over-emotional and too-fast mess that the play portrays it as.

Romeo And Juliet itself is not a Shakespeare original, but based on an even older Italian novella. Few of Shakespeare's plays (possibly none) had original plots.

This makes it even funnier to watch the bits in Shakespeare in Love where Will is trying to work out how the story will end.

'Now is the winter of our discontent' is often said as a negative rather than the happy occasion it is 'made glorious summer by this sun of York"

As Richard is the one who says the line, it is rather bitter/sarcastic. The full couplet translates as "things are looking up, I'm going to murder my brother."

Gilbert And Sullivan's "I am the very model of a modern major general" has been spoofed in so many cartoons, movies, and what have you, that everyone recognizes it, several people don't realize this until it's referenced in Mass Effect 2.

Actor Gustaf Gründgens' famous performances as Mephisto, with sinister stark white make-up, black eye shadow and sharply upturned eyebrows, have definitely influenced later despictions of the devil in visual media.

Spring Awakening is only thought by many people to be a musical set in 1890s Germany, unless they actually look into it at all and find the original Frank Wedekind play on which it is based.

Look up any YouTube video for "Seasons of Love", and you will see an overwhelming number of comments about how people sang it for choir/graduation/etc. and didn't know it was from RENT.

Some people believe that the Harry Nilsson song "One" originally came from Sesame Street, when the song actually came out three years before said show. However, it was referenced on an episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon when The Muppets were guest stars.

The Boys in the Band is a notable gay play from 1968. The play was revived in the UK in 2016, with Mark Gatiss as Harold. While promoting the production on TV, he said that gay men often quote lines from the play without realising it.

American Founding Father Patrick Henry was actually quoting a play named Cato when he ended his famous speech with "Give me liberty or give me death." The play was tremendously popular at the time and everyone present was familiar with it, basically making this the equivalent of someone in the present ending a big speech with "May the Force be with you."

The many promo images and ads of Bloody Mary in her depiction at the event in 2008 are nowadays typically used as stock images for things discussing the famous urban legend, or for creepy internet stuff in general, without people realizing where all these images actually originated from.

This particularly nightmarish picture◊ of a girl being eaten by a giant monster is frequently associated with creepypastas and other scary internet material, even being ranked #1 on TheRichest's list of "15 Disturbing Images You Shouldn't See In The Dark". What many people don't know is that the image is actually of a scene in a haunted house that was featured at Hollywood's HHN in 2011. The house was called La Llorona: Villa De Almas Perdidas, and the scene in question is of an over-sized La Llorona eating a girl that's desperately trying to cling on to her bed.

Video Games

This has become a huge problem for Roguelikes as a whole. Up until the mid-2000s, "roguelike" had a very specific meaning among those that knew it, referring to a niche group turn-based, tile-based dungeon crawling affairs that traced their origins to mainframes in universities and in many cases still preserved the original text-mode graphics. But then games such as FTL: Faster Than Light, Spelunky, and The Binding of Isaac were compared to them, which snowballed into many, many games that incorporate permanent death and randomly generated levels to be referred to or even refer to themselves as "roguelikes", regardless of their actual gameplay. This has since become the most popular definition, leaving an entire genre without an unambiguous name.

You've heard the Tetris theme song, right? Well, turns out it's actually a Russian folk song called "Korobeiniki", and is only really associated with Tetris outside of Russia. The association is so strong, the otherwise public domain song has become a trademark of Tetris within the video game industry.

Chances are, if you hear the names "Dante and Vergil", you'll be thinking of the two iconic brothers from Devil May Cry as opposed to The Divine Comedy.

World of Warcraft is absolutely the king of this, being both Troperrific and jam-packed with shout outs to damn near everything under the sun. From music/bands, novels, films and TV shows, and other video games, from the popular to the extremely obscure, if you name a piece of media, chances are pretty good that WoW has referenced it. This naturally leads to a great deal of Older Than They Think, particularly for the younger and more...culturallyunaware in the fandom. This even applies to the Warcraft franchise itself, since the MMO contains many mythology gags which are shout outs to the older RTS games, and other Blizzard games. Just look at this list for examples. Beyond the references, gameplay elements themselves are victims to this, since WoW is the 800 lb gorilla of the MMO genre. Fandumb often accuses other games of "ripping off" WoW features, when those other games had them first.

Similarly with Starcraft when Dawn of War came out there were plenty of Starcraft fans accusing it of ripping off Starcraft.

Interesting example in that Dawn of War's source material is older than Starcraft, but its gameplay mechanic is not, making this Fan Dumb half of the time.

Many Western gamers assume that Guitar Freaks (or any long-running Japanese rhythm game) ripped off Guitar Hero. Guitar Freaks has been around since 1999; Guitar Hero wasn't released until 2005.

People unfamiliar with the Touhou series will automatically assume that "U.N. Owen was her?" is called "McRolled" all thanks to a viral video much to the annoyance of fans who hate that name.

Even worse, someone posted a remix of "U.N. Owen Was Her?" as John Stump's "Death Waltz", causing much confusion between both songsnote The remix is merely really complex, while the actual Death Waltz is impossible to play and entirely unrelated to "U. N. Owen".

The main character in Pokémon Red and Blue is named Red. But he's often called Ash (Satoshi in Japannote after the de facto creator Satoshi Tajiri) by people more familiar with the anime. Similarily, his rival Blue is referred to as Gary (Shigeru in Japannote likely after the other Shigeru).

This is pretty common in Super Mario World ROM hacks and Mario fan games in general since some of the more well known ones use resources from obscure Japanese RPGs people likely haven't heard of (Romancing SaGa, Live A Live and Seiken Densetsu 3 being some examples) and as a result some people tend to associate said resources with the fan game/hack rather than the original SNES one. Such as how many people don't know that things like the Mirage Palace and Dark Castle are from Seiken Densetsu 3 and not Brutal Mario, or that the 7 Koopalings boss is a parody of the final boss in Romancing SaGa 2. This can lead to awkwardness if people assume any resources from these games are plagarised.

Not everyone realises that virtually every significant character, all the enemy designs and much of the character backstories of Ōkami are taken straight from Japanese mythology.

And a lot of the characters and events from Samurai Warriors and its crossover spinoff Pokémon Conquestnote Which themselves are derived from the Nobunaga's Ambition games. are if not actually accurate then very representative of events in real-life Sengoku-period Japan.

Likewise, many people think the opening theme (and all the game's other music for that matter) of Frogger is original and attribute it to the game. Like this remix by OCRemix site founder DJ Pretzel. The opening is actually taken from an old Japanese childrens' song called Inu no Omawarisan. The acknowledgement on OC Remix was only added in much later.

This also applies to the copyrighted anime themes that appear in the game as well. They come from Rascal the Raccoon, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Hana no Ko Lunlun (split into two parts), and "Moero Arthur: Hakuba no Ouji"note A sequel series of sorts to "Entaku no Kishi: Moero Arthur", Toei's rendition of King Arthur.

Many people consider the Cheetahmen theme to have come from Syobon Action due to the fact that Action 52 was a rather obscure NES game and Syobon Action featured that song prominently (and thanks to the Internet, it's far more well-known).

The famous line from the beginning of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula's "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!", is actually a quotation from French writer André Malraux. Of course, part of what makes it the Narm Charm everyone loves is how it fits with the rest of the dialogue and how it's done by the So Bad, It's Good dub, regardless of how good the quote actually is.

Brows Held High: Fans of this show will recognize Rimsky-Korsakov's composition "Procession of the Nobles" better as the theme music of every episode.

The Cinema Snob: For a long while Brad used "Believe It Or Not" by Joey Scarbury as his intro music for every episode. Many people would probably be surprised that this is actually a nod to the 1980s TV series The Greatest American Hero who used it as their theme music first.

Many famous pieces of classical music have been hijacked by Walt Disney, Looney Tunes and other (usually older) animated sequences, and are many people's only exposure to such works. Many people still have the urge to sing "Kill the Wa-bbit" along to Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", thanks to Elmer Fudd's memorable version in the classic Bugs Bunny short What's Opera, Doc?? And the use of a romanticized version of the Pilgrims' Chorus when Bugs enters on horseback, dressed as Brunnhilde, and fools Elmer/Thor (he used the same entrance, music and disguise with equal success against Hermann Goerring in a wartime cartoon).

30 Rock had an episode where it's revealed Liz's cell phone ringtone is "Ride of the Valkyries", resulting in this exchange:

Phoebe: Oh, you like Wagner. Liz: No, I like Elmer Fudd.

Warehouse 13, while tracking down an artifact via psychic link, the character describes hearing "Kill the Wa-bbit", to the consternation of the classical music fan on the other end.

Looney Tunes also stole heavily from "The William Tell Overture" by Rossini, to the point where almost every major theme in the piece has been used in some cartoon. For a lot of those, it's via another reference—see below.

And Rossini suffers again in Rabbit of Seville, this time with the overture for the Barber of Seville.

How many people can listen to Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 and not be thinking of a cartoon at the same time?

Dance of the Reed Flutes: Are you thinking of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut or Lemmings?

Similar to the above with Dance of The Sugar-Plum Fairy for Tetris - although "Korobeiniki" (see further down this page) is even more strongly associated with it.

Before Fantasia 2000, most people would (and still do) associate "Rhapsody in Blue" as the theme song of United Airlines or the opening scene in Manhattan.

The Theme from Peter Gunn was composed for the TV series Peter Gunn, in 1958.

Felix Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" has probably been heard and remembered more from old cartoons than from the concert hall or recordings.

Likewise, if you've heard of the turn-of-the-century song "Hello, Ma Baby", it was probably from One Froggy Evening, or the parody of that scene in Spaceballs.

Can anyone today even hear the English title of Verdi's Coro di zingari — a.k.a. the "Anvil Chorus" — and not think of Looney Tunes characters dropping anvils on one another? The actual song is about gypsies arising at dawn for their day's work, and looking forward to wine and women later on.

You know the theme song to the old Road Runner cartoons? That's actually the Dance of the Comedians from Bedrich Smetana's "Bartered Bride". See for yourself.

How about The Merry Go Round Broke Down for the Looney Tunes theme song?

The character Foghorn Leghorn was based on the character Beauregard Claghorn, from Fred Allen's Allen's Alley radio program. Today all of his catchphrases will rather make people think of Foghorn rather than this forgotten radio show.

"Poet and Peasant Overture'' is another piece of background music used a lot in Looney Tunes. It was also used in the Animaniacs cartoon "Potty Emergency".

"Sing, Sing, Sing", originally by Louis Prima, played most famously by Benny Goodman, is known to a whole generation of eighteen-to-twenty-somethings as "the Chips Ahoy song".

"Sing, Sing, Sing" seems to be the stock music used to evoke '30s swing jazz.

Woody Woodpecker's laugh is so universally recognized, that some people even forget where the Annoying Laugh to rule them all came from in the first place.

Some young adults are reminded of Hey Arnold! when they hear music from Carmen, Pagliacci, or "Ride of the Valkyries" thanks to the episode "What's Opera Arnold"?

The name of episode itself is a shout out to the well known Bugs Bunny episode What's Opera, Doc?, and it also contains a parody of Elmer's infamous "spear and magic helmet" line.

Most people across the world will rather recognize John Philip Sousa's "Stars And Stripes Forever" as Popeye The Sailor 's victory music than a classical piece.

They're even more likely to make that association with the other piece used for that purpose, "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean".

The animated Saturday morning show The Smurfs used nothing but clips of classical music for mood and theme setting.

Futurama has an example in the boy from the pair of Victorian dressed Street Urchin children who are recurring characters. They are clearly meant to evoke Charles Dickens, as his crutch is identical to that famously used by A Christmas Carol's Tiny Tim, although what the writers seem to have missed was that Tiny Tim was not one of Dickens' urchin characters. Then again, it's Futurama; it was probably on purpose.

Lampshaded again in Futurama, as the Fungineers who designed the Moon Landing 'historical' recreation with singing whale hunters as astronauts have certainly gotten their historical facts through popcultural osmosis.

Fungineering as a whole seems to be based on a massive foundation of Memetic Mutation.

Another one from Futurama is simply the theme song. Most people associate it with the series, but it's actually just a slightly tweaked version of part of the Maurice Béjart ballet Mass for our time. The original was written back in 1967 by experimental composer Pierre Henry and is entitled "Psyché Rock".

Narrator (after four masked turtles hop out of a sewer pipe): I'm afraid popular culture has successfully eradicated the actual identities of the true poets of art. In my opinion, it stinks! And now for a brief reality check. Michelangelo Buonarroti was a brilliant artist. Not a turtle.

Jabberjaw speaks like Curly (another of the Three Stooges), but like Rodney Dangerfield, often complains about not getting any respect.

In one episode of South Park, Mr. Garrison is brought before a disciplinary committee for his actions from a previous episode. When they review just what he's done for the 3rd grade education, one of them notes he hasn't even taught the kids about Samuel Adams, leading a confused Garrison to ask "Well who cares about a guy who makes beer?!", referencing the fact that most people are probably more familiar with the alcohol brand over one of the founding fathers of the country.

Speaking of The Simpsons, most fans of the show believe that Homer's line when he puts on a pair of lost glasses in the episode "$pringfield", "Sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side", was originally written for the show, when it actually comes from The Wizard of Oz. It's gotten to the point where 3 of the top 5 results that comes up when the quote is typed in on Google are related to The Simpsons, with the top related searches also being related to the line's quotation in the show.

Here's a more obscure one. Kent Brockman's "insect overlords" line actually comes from a horror movie called "Empire of the Ants", which involves giant ants invading the Earth.

Family Guy: Most younger fans of this show are completely unaware how many scenes in this program are directly lifted from other films, TV shows, animated cartoons, comics, TV commercials. The most noteworthy of these is the theme song, which begins with Peter and Lois singing in front of a piano and was lifted from the intro of All in the Family.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has reached such Internet popularity over the years that only those who were young in the 1980s may remember the original "G1" incarnation on which it was based, almost three decades earlier.

The song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" which is commonly played during the spring and Easter seasons actually came from the lesser known Rankin Bass holiday special Here Comes Peter Cottontail which shares the name of the song that came before it. However, a number of people would think and even believe that the song is actually about Peter Rabbit from The Tale of Peter Rabbit which doesn't help that Peter Rabbit also has a sister named Cottontail. As a result some Americans would think that "Peter Cottontail" was Peter Rabbit's full name and the title of the book.

Real Life — Historical people

Many historical or literary characters live on in many people's minds because of their association with the name of a fictional character, which usually has nothing to do with the real life counterpart. For examples, see Named After Somebody Famous.

Many founders of religions have been raised to the status of being some kind of inhumanly wise, kind and perfect demigods.

Cleopatra VIInote The "Cleopatra" most people are familiar with.: Many people imagine her as Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) which while unusually accurate to the historical record, was far more glamorous, fitting to 20th century beauty standards, since obviously no record survives of the ancient world. At the very least she was certainly not the World's Most Beautiful Woman as the film most definitely implies.

Cardinal Richelieu: Thanks to The Three Musketeers we nowadays see him as a scheming villain in the French royal court, which is a very demonized version of the actual man, though again, not by much.

Giacomo Casanova: All the book, TV series and novel adaptations have depicted Casanova as some kind of handsome, charming, attractive young sex god. In reality he wasn't actually that good looking and it's never been said that he was a great lover, just a good seducer. It also ignores many of his other endeavours, as Casanova indeed did more than just skirt chasing during his lifetime.

Billy the Kid: Many stories will depict him as a vicious Big Bad who murdered countless people in cold blood. The actual Billy the Kid only has four confirmed murders attached to his name, which was still high by Wild West standards since The Wild West was not as bloodthirsty as you would believe.

Jesse James is remembered because of the folk song which said "He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor" and for various movie adaptations. The real Jesse James was a Confederate guerilla and slaveowner who massacred Union soldiers and once robbed medicine supplies for the poor. He was also a Wholesome Crossdresser and perhaps a male prostitute.

Some people who hear the name Jesse James may think that you're referring to Team Rocket.

Guy Fawkes, the man who wanted to blow up the English Parliament in 1605, has changed into a popular bonfire puppet on Bonfire Night in the UK and into a world wide symbol of anarchism and rebellion since his depiction in V for Vendetta, despite the fact that this comic strip and the film adaptation have nothing whatsoever to do with the real-life Fawkes' ambitions.

Gerald Ford: President Ford occasionally fell over during televised broadcasts, yet not as much as popular culture would like you to believe. A football injury caused his knee to go out unexpectedly. There's a famous film of him descending from Air Force One, stumbling on the steps and muttering "Damn!!" as he knew the cameras were on him. The image of Ford as a clumsy oaf who just bumps into stuff, trips over objects and makes almost his entire environment collapse is more a result of Chevy Chase 's depiction of him in Saturday Night Live at the time.

Michael Jackson: Nine times out of ten, popular culture will depict Jackson as some kind of helium-voiced Manchild with a chimpanzee on his arm, shouting "Shamone!" or "You're ignoràààànt". First of all, his voice was certainly soft, but not as squeaky as many imitators have turned it into (and he was quite capable of affecting a deep and manly voice, as on the title track to Dangerous). His depiction as an infantile and naïve person is also based more on the image depicted by himself on camera, but is certainly not Truth in Television. After all Jackson was an adult and described by many as a clever businessman. The idea that Michael says "shamone" a lot is derived from the Bad era, where he shouted "come on" during "Bad" and "Man in the Mirror" in such a way that many people misheard it as "shamone" and comedians ever since have pronounced it that way. The idea that Jackson says "You're ignorant" is lifted from South Park parodies of the man.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Thanks to being depicted as a pathetic dwarf in many early 19th century British newspaper cartoons, Napoleon is often depicted as such in popular culture, despite the fact that he was actually of slightly above average height, and almost certainly had no complex or envy to conquer because of it. Needless to say this comes from British propaganda hence you won't hear the tiny inconvenient fact that the British declared war on Napoleon first and broke the Peace of Amiens.

Maximilien Robespierre is The Dandy who guillotined people and was a total psychopath during the Reign of Terror, thanks to two centuries of consistent demonization. The real guy while seriously flawed was a deeply complex and ambiguous figure and most definitely not a dictator as the common portrayals imply. At the very least, he was definitely The Dandy and a real clotheshorse. While he was personally a man of probity and lived frugally, clothes was his one luxury.

Elvis Presley: His greasy quiff has been exaggarated as being enormously huge and long in popular culture, mostly thanks to depictions in cartoons, by Elvis imitators and groups like Leningrad Cowboys. When you look at actual photos or archive footage you'll notice that it's actually not that grotesque.

Rasputin the Mad Monk: Popular culture tends to depict him as an insane villain who plots to overthrow the Czar and/or is some kind of immortal demon. In reality Rasputin was nothing but a debauchede man who had gained the trust of the Czarina, thanks to being able to heal her son, while other doctors couldn't. He never did anything to overthrow the Czar and why would he? He had tremendous power as her advisor. The idea that he could not be murdered has been based on the anecdote that his assassins had repeatedly tried to kill him, but failed. It's more safe to assume that their failed methods of trying to assassinate him were just the result of incompetence, rather than Rasputin being invincible or something. Or that they largely made up the story.

Antonio Salieri was a 18th and 19th century composer who was very famous during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades beyond. In 1984 he suddenly became more famous again, thanks to Amadeus (1984), in which he is incorrectly portrayed as the Arch-Nemesis of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Nevertheless, the film did help renew interest in his work, which — in many cases — was even recorded on albums for the first time!

William Wallace and Robert The Bruce have become more internationally famous since Braveheart (1996), but more as the way they are depicted in this film, which is a very far cry from actual historical events. Many people nowadays imagine Wallace as Mel Gibson's depiction in that film. There was actual outcry of Americanization when a statue of Wallace resembling Mel Gibson was placed in his native town. It was eventually removed. Similarly the Scottish government wanted to sue the film makers for depicting their national hero Robert The Bruce as an unconfident doublecrosser of Wallace.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have both been romanticized by American historians in the centuries beyond as some sort of demigods who were always honest and never told a lie. More serious historical research since the late 20th century has finally put a stop to this idea, but the image still lives on in popular culture.

Francesco Zappa is an obscure and nowadays almost completely forgotten 18th century composer from Italy. Yet, fans of Frank Zappa will have heard from him as Frank Zappa recorded an album in 1984 called Francesco Zappa. Unfortunately many people, even Zappa fans, incorrectly think that 'Francesco Zappa' is just a pseudonym for Zappa pretending to be a baroque composer, while in reality the music on that album are all real scores written by this 18th century composer, who wasn't related to Frank Zappa at all. All Frank Zappa did was score the music on his Synclavier computer, making Francesco Zappa effectively a Cover Album.

Tutankhamun (AKA:: Most people remember him more for the so-called "curse" rather than his actual reign. Blame all the countless "Mummy" movies for that. Of course, there wasn't really much to remember about his reign except that he he ended his predecessor's experiment with monotheism. His fame stems pretty much entirely from the fact that he was the only pharaoh whose tomb was not emptied by grave-robbers before it was discovered by archaeologists...

Spartacus is imagined by many people to look like Kirk Douglas did in the eponymous 1960 movie. Of course, since no images or first-hand accounts of Spartacus' appearance exists, one cannot say for certain that Spartacus didn't look like Kirk Douglas.

King Canute once ordered the sea to pull back, but then got splashed by the tide still coming in. This is about all present day people remember about him. They forget that Canute was actually demonstrating to his vainglorious courtiers that no man was more powerful than God (or nature) and that the famous anecdote wasn't just proof of how moronic this king supposedly was for trying to command the tide.

HenryVIII is more remembered today for being a Big Eater and the business with his six wives than for his political deeds.

Ah, "Bloody Mary". You are referring to the drink right? The nickname of Mary Tudor? Oh...

Queen Victoria is closely associated with the phrase "We are not amused", something she never wrote down in real life. There are many historic documents where she used the term "We were very amused" , though. The "We are not amused" phrase probably originated from all the photographs in which she looks deadly serious while wearing a dark dress.

Mongol warlord Kublai Khan is more famous nowadays as the subject of a famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Christopher Columbus is closely associated with the story how he supposedly made an egg stand upright on table by cracking its bottom half. Despite this tale still popping up in many child-oriented media there is no historical evidence Columbus ever did this, nor that he invented this trick. It's more likely that his name was just used to give the story more weight by adding one of the most well known historical characters to it.

If you mention Galileo Galilei many people may think you're quoting from Queen's song "Bohemian Rhapsody" rather than talking about the 17th century scientist.

The Red Baron will bring up associations with Snoopy 's imaginary foe rather than the nickname of real-life World War I pilot Manfred von Richthofen.

Mata Hari has evolved into the archetypical Femme Fatale Spy who was the best in her profession. Of course, that's what all those novels, comics, films and TV adaptations would want you to believe. In reality she was a very mediocre spy. German secret intelligence only gave her more importance and notoriety to distract the French military forces who had arrested her.

Humanitarian activist Oskar Schindler and Nazi commander Amon Goeth owe much of their posthumous fame thanks to Steven Spielberg's film adaptationSchindler's List of Thomas Keneally's novelization "Schindler's Ark". In actual fact, the incidents surrounding their actions were minor footnotes in a vast tragedy and actions taken by Schindler while not without merit, were more typical than the film would have you believe.

The international infamy of Bonnie and Clyde owes a lot to the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde//.

An old lady who is the head of a notorious criminal gang has become a stock character in many comedies, comics and cartoons, including The Goonies, Lucky Luke and Ducktales and Boney M.'s hit song "Ma Baker". But she was derived from a real-life mother of an actual criminal, Fred Barker, who in reality had little to do with Barker's gang.

Marilyn Monroe lives on in the imaginations of many as a gentle Dumb Blonde. That this was a result of typecasting and not who she was in real life doesn't dawn on them, nor that she was actually a very good actress who was admired and respected in France and Germany, and cited as a great comedienne.

Most people in Europe have based much of their notion about the ancient Gauls on what they've read in Astérix. For instance, mention the word "druid" and everybody will envision Panoramix (Getafix in the English version). The same goes for our idea that all the Gauls wore moustaches, winged helmets and had names that ended in "-ix".

The word "vandal" is used to describe people who deliberately want to destroy things. How many know it originally referred to a Germanic tribe, the Vandals, who founded an empire in North Africa during the "Dark Ages" and were not really more notorious for pillaging than other tribes? The pejorative use of "vandal" and "vandalism" in fact only arose during the French Revolution when a word to castigate the destruction of cultural monuments by revolutionary mobs.

Similarly, the word Goth now brings to mind the stereotype of a modern subculture of people who wear a lot of black and listen to depressing music, rather than the various Gothic tribes who invaded Europe in the second quarter of the first millenium AD and were the eventual destroyers of the Roman Empire.

Thanks to numerous pirate stories set in The Golden Age of Piracy most people see pirates as noble and adventurous rebels who have a lot of fun sailing the oceans, attacking ships and burying treasures on a Deserted Island. In reality they were poor sailors who turned to crime, hardly ever attacked ships violently, rarely mounted a great haul and spent all their loot as quickly as possible.

Blackbeard, conversely, is widely assumed to have been a blood-crazed butcher who slaughtered people by the shipload, due to a combination of this trope and his own deliberate self-promotion. In actual history, the only people he was ever documented to have killed were aboard the colonial sloops that finally hunted him down.

Almost everything people think they know about the Three Kingdoms (or Sanguo) era of Ancient China is instead a piece of popular fiction, largely from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (or Sanguo Yanyi). Owing to a complicated history of post-Three Kingdoms dynasties, false "historical" records and the sheer depth to which the fictionalisation of the era is ingrained in Chinese culture, very little of what is "known" matches up with reality. Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu were terrible generals, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun were unremarkable warriors, Xiahou Dun was a poor commander but an important administrator, Cao Pi wasn't a tyrant, Cao Rui was a fair and progressive emperor, Sun Shangxiang wasn't named Shangxiang, etc. Important figures such as Lu Fan and Zhong Yao don't even get mentioned, let alone given due credit.

Real Life — Locations

Certain regions, cities and towns are only famous to the general public because of their association with a certain novel, film, song or other work of art or historical event, being the location of a famous landmark, or their association with a famous person. Some people, usually not the inhabitants of the place themselves, may even be amazed that the examples made famous by fiction actually exist.

South Park, Colorado USA: South Park (aversion, as the town in the show is completely fictional)

Well, South Park is a real place (a flat grassland surrounded by mountains), and South Park City is an alternative name for the town of Fairplay in South Park, and the geographical references made in the series all work out. See the Wikipedia entry on South Park for more details.

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